A new blog post on the Relic Dawn of War blog details every ability and piece of wargear that the new Tau Commander Last Stand hero will unlock on his quest to reach level 20. It looks like Relic have not only nailed what the Tau are about, but have created a high-risk, mobile, ranged devastator that should provide new challenge for anyone who thinks they've mastered Dawn of War 2's superb three-man survival mode. This is a character who does ZERO damage in melee, but has access to a plasma gun and jump jets from the start, and abilities with names like "sky ray barrage."

Listing every upgrade and wargear unlock will be a bit spoilery for some, but if you're eager to see some of the slightly terrifying upgrades on offer, including heavy assault drones and nano-bots, you'll find the full list on the Dawn of War 2 blog. According to IGN the Tau Commander is set to hit Steam later today, and will cost $9.99.

Relic are also releasing some new chapter packs for Dawn of War 2's armies, including the Death Korps of Krieg for the Imperial Guard, and Word Bearers for Chaos.

Orks are the winners of the latest Dawn of War 2: Retribution patch. The greenskins get a series of health buffs across the board, making those vast, snot coloured mobs even more intimidating. Love them or hate them, you won't be able to kill them quite as easily as you could yesterday.

In fact, every race has received balance tweaks, and a sizeable list of bugs have been quietly taken out back and shot with a plasma pistol. You'll find the full patch notes below, nabbed from the Dawn of War 2 Retribution forums. On a related side note, the Eldar Ulthwe DLC mentioned yesterday is available now on the Steam store for £4.99 / $7.50.

Map Changes

Fixed an issue on 4P Golgotha Depths that prevented Chaos spawning in the 4th position from entering the building in the back cornerFixed an issue on 4P Selenon Fissure that caused some units to get stuck in places by teleport or knockback that were not in playable areasFixed an issue on 6P Calderis Refinery that caused some units to get stuck in places by teleport or knockback that were not in playable areas

Bug Fixes

Dark Flames now do flamer_ability_pvp from flamer_pvpFixed an exploit that allowed players to cast smite multiple timesAll Chaos worship modifiers are now exclusiveRavener Alpha no longer fires while making tunnelsPlague Marine death explosion no longer gives a damage modifierTyranid Mycetic Spores no longer reinforces allied unitsFixed an issue that allowed the Lord General to cast med kits multiple timesWraithguard tooltip changed to “Heavy Infantry” from “Super Heavy Infantry”Ogryns tooltip changed to “Super Heavy Infantry” from “Heavy Infantry”Reduced the chance of abilities to misfireImproved squad plans of units with flamers so that the squad will retain unit coherencyImproved squad plans of units with missiles so that the squad will retain unit coherencyOrk Burna Melee cooldown changed from 1 to 0Fixed an issue that allowed units to take damage when under the effects of “Angels of Death”Fixed an issue that allowed Nobs to take damage when under the effect of “Frenzy”Hellfury damage type changed to flame_ability_pvp from flamer_pvpForce Commander’s Power Sword now shows proper weapon decoratorInquisitor’s Holy Brazier now shows proper weapon decoratorChaos Lord Blood Maul now shows proper weapon decoratorSluggas when upgraded with Nob leader now shows proper weapon decoratorPlague Marine’s Plague Sword now shows proper weapon decoratorWarlock’s Witchblade of Kurnous now shows proper weapon decoratorCommissar Lord’s Power Sword now shows proper weapon decoratorOrk Stormboyz now show proper weapon decoratorWarboss Bosspole no longer stacks HP on the Warboss